Happy Birthday, William H. Johnson

African-American artist William H. Johnson was born on this day in 1901.

Throughout most of his career, Johnson sought to capture the soul and spirit rather than simply the appearance of his subjects. An expressionist, he valued instinct over intellect and acknowledged that his vision as an artist was as important in making paintings as was depicting the observable world. In his earlier paintings of picturesque towns and dramatic landscapes, as well as in the images with African-America themes, the "world" he chose to paint was a down-to-earth place, inhabited by people who, like him, believed in community.

William H. Johnson explained his artistic inspiration in this quote from 1946, "In all my years of painting, I have had one absorbing and inspiring idea, and have worked towards it with unyielding zeal; to give—in simple and stark form—the story of the Negro as he has existed."

To learn more about Johnson's life and work, visit our on-line educational resource web site Journey through Art with William H. Johnson.

Source: National Museum of American Art. (Washington, D.C. and Boston, New York, Toronto and London: National Museum of American Art with Bulfinch Press, Little Brown and Company, 1995).

Pictured: William H. Johnson (1901–1970), Self-Portrait with Pipe,about 1937, oil, 35 x 28 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation.